This week I chatted with two different, well qualified sources that confirmed it. JBL is no longer manufacturing anything in the D/K/E cones. Apparently changes to the manufacturing process were disastrous, and they decided to shut it down. I'm guessing we'll watch the price of originals sky rocket in short order.

Fortunately, enough folks are interested that substitutes seem to be around. Sigh.

Crap. I have a pile of blown JBLs that I was planning on getting reconed. I did one with a third party kit that doesn't sound quite right. I can't afford it at the moment. I miss the days when a JBL recone was $35 at EU Wurlitzer's in Boston.

I've heard from Dutch at Vin-tone and from Ken (edge wound) at Upland that the third party after market parts have come a long ways. I have one of Dutch's re-cones and with the aluminum dome it's very close to the old D's.

I recently had an E120 re-coned at Orange County with an aftermarket kit and it sounds really nice. When I sent it in they were planning to use genuine JBL parts but I received a call saying the batch of JBL kits they had didn't pass quality control due to voice coil issues. The aftermarket was half the price and I wouldn't hesitate having them do another one.